Galatians 5 - Standing Fast In the Liberty of Jesus
B. How to live in the liberty of Jesus.
1. (13-15) Using liberty to love each other
For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
a. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty: Paul has made the point over and over again – the Christian life is a life of liberty. Jesus came to set the captives free, not to keep them in bondage or put them in bondage all over again. It’s worth asking if people see us as people of freedom and liberty. Often, Christians are seen as people more bound up and hung up than anyone else is.
i. “He is not saying that a certain measure of liberty was grudgingly accorded believers. He is saying that freedom is of the essence of being Christian; it is the fundamental basis of all Christian living.” (Morris)
b. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh: The great fear of the legalist is that liberty will always be used as an opportunity for the flesh. The idea is that people will just go out and sin as they please, then say to a spineless God, “I’m sorry, please forgive me,” and then go on doing whatever they want again. Paul recognizes the danger of this attitude, so he warns against it here.
i. First, Paul writes to brethren. These are those who are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26). These are those who were baptized into Christ and have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27).
ii. These ones have been called to liberty. As Paul put it earlier in the chapter, they have been made free by Jesus Christ, now they are called to stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free (Galatians 5:1). They have been set free; now the question is, “How will they use their liberty?”
iii. Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh: Clearly, we can choose to use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. That option – that danger – is open to us. We can take the glorious freedom Jesus has given us, spin it, and use it as a way to please ourselves at the expense of others. Because the context focuses on the way we treat one another, Paul has in mind using our freedom in a way that tramples on the toes of others.
iv. Rendall on opportunity: “This term was applied in military language to a base of operations, and generally to any starting-point for action.” We are tempted to use our liberty in Jesus as a “base of operations” for selfish sin.
v. It is easy to think liberty is “the right to sin,” or “the privilege to do whatever evil my heart wants to do.” Instead, this liberty is the Spirit-given desire and ability to do what we should do before God.
c. But through love serve one another: This is the antidote for using liberty as an occasion for the flesh. The flesh expects others to conform to us, and doesn’t care much about others. But when we through love serve one another, we conquer the flesh. It isn’t through an obsessive, contemplative attitude of navel-gazing that we overcome the flesh, but by getting out and serving others.
i. This is exactly the pattern set by Jesus. He had more liberty than anyone who ever walked this earth did. Yet He used His liberty to through love serve one another.
ii. In the original Greek, Paul is even more specific. He says, through the love serve one another. What love? Specifically, the love of Jesus Christ. “Paul uses the article: it is ‘the love’ of which he writes, the distinctive Christian love.” (Morris)
d. For all the law is fulfilled: This attitude of service towards one another fulfills the great commandment (You shall love your neighbor as yourself), and it keeps us from destroying ourselves through strife (beware lest you be consumed by one another!). It’s as if Paul addresses the legalists again, and says: “You want to keep the law? Here you have it! Love your neighbor as yourself and you have fulfilled the law in one word.”
i. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? This simple idea has been twisted into the idea of setting self-love as the foundation for a healthy human personality. Instead the idea is that as we naturally take care of ourselves, we should also take care of others.
ii. “The primary meaning is not that we must properly love ourselves before we can love others . . . but that we are to love our neighbor with the same spontaneity and alacrity [speed] with which we love ourselves.” (Fung)
iii. “If you want to know how you ought to love your neighbor, ask yourself how much you love yourself. If you were to get into trouble or danger, you would be glad to have the love and help of all men. You do not need any book of instructions to teach you how to love your neighbor. All you have to do is to look into your own heart, and it will tell you how you ought to love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luther)
iv. Calvin on the love of others and the love of ourselves: “The two affections are opposite and contradictory; for the love of ourselves begets a neglect and contempt of others.”
v. A wonderful test of our spiritual state is simply how we treat other people. No matter what spiritual image or status we may have, God deeply cares about how we treat others. We want to make the measure how much we pray, how much of the Bible we know, how many things we “don’t do.” But the measure is how we treat our brothers and sisters in Jesus. As Luther said, “Whenever you are angry with your brother for any cause, repress your violent emotions through the Spirit. Bear with his weakness and love him. He does not cease to be your neighbor or brother because he offended you. On the contrary, he now more than ever before requires your loving attention.” No wonder Trapp writes, “Neither can any one love his neighbour as himself, but he that loves God above all.”
e. Bite and devour one another sounds like a pack of wild animals! That’s how the church can act when it is using its “liberty” as a platform to promote their own selfishness. If you want to see some fireworks, put two selfish people together. Selfish people will eventually be consumed by one another.
i. “The loveless life is a life lived on the level of animals, with a concern only for oneself, no matter what the cost to other people.” (Morris)
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is taken from the New King James translation of the Bible.
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